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Editors' Review

Windows 7 is the seventh major release of Microsoft's flagship desktop operating system, released in October 2009 as the next step beyond Windows Vista.

The good: Strong design and Microsoft don't always go together, but they do in Windows 7. Users might take a while to get used to the new taskbar and Aero Peek, but they're a pleasure to use.

The bad: Performance is still hit-or-miss in Windows 7. At the ripe age of seven, Windows XP still performs better in some categories.

The bottom line:

Deserved or not, Microsoft had dug itself a cool, deep, dark hole with Windows Vista. Users demanding that Redmond extend the life of Windows XP wasn't exactly something they could be proud of, either. Bombarded by complaints and negative press even after the first service pack was released, the bar had been set high for Vista's successor: Windows 7. This review is based on an official copy of the Windows 7 RTM that Microsoft provided to CNET on July 30, 2009.

Luckily for Microsoft, Windows 7 is more than just spin. It's stable, smooth, and highly polished, introducing new graphical features, a new taskbar that can compete handily with the Mac OS X dock, and device management and security enhancements that make it both easier to use and safer. Importantly, it won't require the hardware upgrades that Vista demanded, partially because the hardware has caught up, and partially because Microsoft has gone to great lengths to make Windows 7 accessible to as many people as possible.

It's important to note that the public testing process for Windows 7 involved one limited-availability beta and one release candidate, and constituted what some have called the largest shareware trial period ever. As buggy and irritating as Vista was, Windows 7 isn't. Instead, it's the successor to Windows XP that Microsoft wishes Vista had been, and finally places it on competitive footing with other major operating systems like OS X and Linux.

Microsoft is offering six versions of Windows 7: Starter, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, OEM, and Enterprise. The three versions that Redmond will be promoting most heavily are Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate, although Starter will also be available to consumers.

Windows 7 will support both 32-bit and 64-bit systems. The bare minimum requirements for the 32-bit include a 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB available hard-disk space, and a DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver. 64-bit systems will require at least a 1 GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 20GB of free space on your hard drive, and a DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver. A touch-screen monitor is required to take advantage of the native touch features. Do note that some users have claimed to have limited success running the Windows 7 beta with less than 1GB of RAM, but that's not recommended.

Installation Microsoft is offering several paths to install Windows 7. People can buy a new computer with the operating system already installed, upgrade from Windows XP or Vista, or do a clean install on a computer the user already owns. The clean installation took us about 30 minutes, but that will vary depending on your computer.

The upgrade procedure is different depending on whether you're running Windows XP or Windows Vista. Vista users merely need to back up their data before choosing the Upgrade option from the install disc. Both XP Home and XP Pro users will have to back up their data, then choose Custom from the install disc. Custom will have the same effect as a clean install, although it'll save your old data in a folder called Windows.old. Once you choose Custom, you'll need to select the partition of your hard drive that contains Windows XP, and then follow the instructions to enter your product key and allow the computer to reboot as needed.

If you're not sure if your current computer can run Windows 7, you can download and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft.

Features: Taskbar and Aero Peek Although the look of Windows 7 may seem to be nothing more than some polish applied liberally to the Vista Aero theme, make no mistake: This is a full replacement operating system, and more than just "Vista done right." From driver support to multitouch groundwork for the future, from better battery management to the most easy-to-use interface Microsoft has ever had, Windows 7 is hardly half-baked.

The first thing that should stand out is the new taskbar. This is one of the best improvements Microsoft has made--third-party program dock makers are going to have to do some serious innovation when Windows 7 goes public. Besides incorporating the translucent style of Aero, the new taskbar is arguably even better than the Mac OS X dock. It features pinned programs using large, easy-to-see icons. Mouse over one and all windows associated with that program appear in preview. Mouse over one of those preview panes to reveal an X to close the window. Hover over the preview to show a full-size preview of the program, or click on the window to bring it to the front. Because of the button size, people with touch screens should find it especially easy to use.

Jump lists are another new taskbar improvement that make recently opened documents easier to get to. Right-click or left-click and drag on any program icon pinned to the taskbar to see a list of files that you've recently used in that program. In Internet Explorer, this will show recently visited Web sites, although it doesn't yet seem to work in Firefox.

If you've noticed the missing Show Desktop icon, that's because it's been baked into the taskbar itself. Mouse over to the right corner. Hovering over the Show Desktop box reveals the desktop, and then hides it when you mouse away. Click on the box to minimize all your programs.

Resizing programs has been simplified and improved by the capability to drag a window's title bar. Drag a program window to the top of your monitor to expand it to full screen. If you want to work in two windows simultaneously, drag one to the left edge and one to the right edge of your screen, and they'll automatically resize to half the width of your monitor. Dragging a program away from the top or sides will return it to its original size. This is an entirely new feature in Windows 7, but it should prove easy to adopt because it mimics and expands on the maximize/restore button that people have been resizing windows with since Windows 95.

Theme packages also make it much faster to change the look of Windows 7. From the Control Panel, you can change the theme under Appearance and Personalization. Microsoft has created several theme packages to give people a taste for what the feature can do. Click on one to download it, and it instantly changes the color scheme and background--no need to reboot. Users can create their own themes, as well.

Windows Media Player and Device Stage One of the biggest new features makes Windows Media Player useful again: you can now stream media files from one Windows 7 computer to another, across the Internet and out of network. Even better, the setup procedure is dead simple.

When you open Windows Media Player, there's a new Stream option on the toolbar. Click it, and you're presented with two choices. Both require you to associate your computer with your free Windows Live ID. When you've associated a second Windows 7's WMP with that same ID, you can remotely access the media on the host computer. Windows Media Player's mini mode looks much slicker, emphasizing the album art--sometimes at the expense of clearly seeing the controls, but it's a definite improvement.

The new Device Stage makes managing peripherals significantly easier, combining printers, phones, and portable media players into one window. A large photo of the peripheral summarizes important device stats and makes it easy to identify which devices you're using. Device Stage can also be used to preset common tasks, such as synchronization. Device Stage support for older devices makes one of Windows 7's best features applicable to peripherals and externals that don't need to be upgraded. One annoying change is that Bluetooth driver support no longer comes baked into the operating system. If you need a Bluetooth driver, you'll either need the installation disc on hand or you'll have to go download it.

Search, touch screens, and XP mode Windows 7's native search feature has been improved. Files added to the hard drive were indexed so fast that they were searchable less than 5 seconds later. Search result snippets now include a longer snippet, and highlight the snippet more clearly. This should appeal specifically to people who juggle large numbers of long documents, but it's a useful feature for anybody who wants to find files faster. However, the search field is available by default only in the Start menu and in Windows Explorer, and cannot be easily added to the taskbar.

Touch-screen features worked surprisingly well. The hardware sometimes misread some of the multitouch gestures, occasionally confusing rotating an image, for example, with zooming in or out of the image. Overall, though, there were few difficulties in performing the basic series of gestures that Microsoft promotes, and this places Windows 7 in an excellent position for the future, as more and more computers are released with multitouch abilities.

Experts and people or companies who hope to use Windows 7 for business situations will appreciate the new XP Mode. It doesn't have much of a practical application for the home consumer, but if you need to access programs designed for Windows XP that have not been upgraded to Windows Vista or 7, XP Mode creates a virtual environment within Windows 7 that should assuage any fears of upgrading without backward compatibility.

It's not easy to set up once you've downloaded the XP Mode installer. You'll need to double-check that you have the right hardware, and can get the right software. Hardware Virtualization Technology, also known as AMD-V, Vanderpool, or VT-d, must be supported for it to work. Motherboards older than two years probably won't work, and even if you do have a newer one you might have to go into your BIOS and activate Hardware Virtualization. CPU-identification utilities are available from Microsoft that can tell you if you're in the clear or not. However, if compatibility is the issue, this hassle will be worth it to you. Users will have full access to peripherals connected to their Windows 7 hardware, including printers, and the clipboard can be used to cut and paste between the virtual operating system and the "real" one.

Security User Account Control, or UAC, is back in Windows 7. Microsoft has tweaked the feature so that it's less intrusive, but it's not clear whether that means you're actually more or less secure than you were in Vista. UAC was one of the biggest changes in Vista. It tightened program access, but did it in such a way as to frustrate many owners of single-user computers. Windows 7 provides more options for user customization of UAC.

The default setting is to notify users only when programs try to make changes to the computer, one step below the most restrictive setting of Always Notify. Under Always Notify, anytime a program tries to access the Internet, or you try to make changes to the computer, Windows 7 will require user confirmation. The second-least restrictive option doesn't dim the desktop when UAC is activated, and will only notify the user when programs try to make changes to the computer. When the desktop dims, Windows 7 is locking it down and preventing access. Never Notify is the most relaxed option, and is only recommended by Microsoft for programs that aren't compatible with UAC.

UAC also displays a blue banner when confronted with a program from a known publisher versus a yellow banner and exclamation point when the program is from an unknown publisher. The number of clicks it should take to use UAC safely has been reduced, However, it's important to note that it's a less aggressive default posture by UAC.

A less glitzy, but no less important, change to how removable drives are handled also can affect your media. Unlike Windows XP and Windows Vista, Windows 7 will no longer AutoRun external hard drives and USB keys when they're connected. This kills off a risky vector for malware infections that has been the bane of many security experts.

Although Microsoft is working on a revamp of its antivirus and antimalware program, now called Microsoft Security Essentials, it won't be bundled with Windows 7. Users are still required to download a third-party antivirus and antimalware program, although the Windows Firewall remains intact. As with many features in Windows 7 that have been carried over from Windows Vista, people will notice there's far more granular settings control than before. Features like filtering outbound traffic, which were available in Vista but not exposed, are easier to access in Windows 7.

As you can see in the chart, we found that Windows 7 RTM was the fastest to shutdown, and was tied with XP for iTunes encoding. However, it was slower than XP and Vista for both booting up cold by a bit more than 1 second, and slower than either of its predecessors in its Microsoft Office performance. After having used Windows 7 beta, RC, and now the RTM for more than six months combined, it still feels faster for us when launching programs, opening the control panel, and dragging icons, files, and folders around than XP. That's not to denigrate the value of the benchmarks, but keep in mind that the perception and reality might differ based on hardware and usage.

Support When you try to use a file already in use, Windows 7 goes beyond Vista and XP by telling you not just that it's being used, but where it's being used so you can manage the situation faster. Other than that, Windows 7 offers on-board operating system support nearly identical to Windows Vista. Screen darkening, one-click action hand-holding, and a useful question mark icon on all Explorer windows maintain Vista's improved help features, when compared with Windows XP.

In sum Windows 7 looks like the operating system that both Microsoft and its consumers have been waiting for. By fixing most of the perceived and real problems in Vista, Microsoft has laid the groundwork for the future of where Windows will go. Windows 7 presents a stable platform that can compete comfortably with OS X, while reassuring the world that Microsoft can still turn out a strong, useful operating system.

Publisher's Description

Windows 7 is the updated version of the Vista operating system from Microsoft. Windows 7 Professional has everything you need for work and home. Simplify everyday tasks: find something instantly, compare documents side-by-side, or easily back-up your complete system over a network. Enjoy a PC that works the way you want it to; supports 64-bit technologies and offers XP Mode for your business productivity applications Make new things possible: watch Internet TV, pause, rewind, and record TV or use Touch to interact with your PC in new ways. This product includes both 32- and 64-bit versions, and 90 days of Microsoft Support Services included. Microsoft Windows 7 Professional is purchase-only software and can be bought and downloaded online or shipped via mail.

Always seems to be some type of problem...games run and hang up every minute or so...so many problems.To upgrade a second computer you have to buy another Key. They used to be around $80...now up to $200. Highway robbery.

Not backwardly compatible with many games that use particular graphics functions.

Microsoft Security Essentials not included (needs to be downloaded).

Summary

I used to use Windows 7 (64-bit) with a 7200rpm hard drive and it was pretty good. However, with a solid state drive it flies, and starts up in a fraction of the time, and my mainboard is only SATA2, so theoretically it should be even better with SATA3

I always have a second standard mechanical hard drive to store all my documents and downloads, all set to go there automatically in the Options section of the various software, and do this so that the SSD doesn't fill up too quickly, as it is only a 128gb Samsung. Since installing it on the SSD I have not had any problems.

The fact that no anti-virus such as Security Essentials is included means that many not-so-savvy people are going to end up without any protection against viruses. And it's really stupid that this doesn't even appear in the optional downloads! You can only wonder at the idiocy of Microsoft management that fails to appreciate that the world is not full of geeks.

The mass replace function is a tad betterFlashy, but not really better

Cons

Hangs frequently & for no reasonSlower than XPWasted space, less customization (file explorer)ribbons are a waste of spacecan't customize search or get the search to function properlyIncessant updatesBuggy as heckFolder views do not remember last position or order of things contained.Illogical structure for user. User has to go into registry to get things to function logicallyUseless features and flash that have to be turned off with difficulty.

And I say this using an i5 & an i7 with plenty of memory. There's no reason software should be this sluggish on this mid to high performance machines.Flashy means slower: resource pig even when it's optimized for speed.

Summary

They make it worse and less user friendly every time they change it. Their incessant updates are ridiculous. The way things are organized is illogical. Not as customizable as it should & could be (as it used to be). They should have stuck with XP and refined and improved it. It was the best they had.

Faster,greater multitasking, less bloated, better Compatibility, ease of use, more stable and less freezes, redesigned taskbar is nice, and aero theme is cool.

Cons

Not many, only con is some of my older programs won't work and expensive.

Summary

Overall way better than that 2000 dollar rip off know as mac and osx lion. Lion litterally froze and fporced me to restart it like 5 times a day. Thats 35 restarts a week! Windows 7 has not crash or froze on me since i started using it. And it is much faster than any other OS I used

I positively despise Windows 7. I have to use it for some work related programs but otherwise have a Mac. It is more of the same screen locking, blue screen of death, software load failure performance synonymous with Windows but how, after so many versions and updates, can it still be having the same issues? And as an additional slap in the face, you have to dig further and rummage through even more screens to get it set up the way you want. Utterly unintuitive, cumbersome, loaded with annoying sounds and dings set to chime by default, it is a complete annoyance. The only other businesses that can get away with Microsoft's incompetence are Health Care and Car Insurance. You can cruise along for a few weeks without issue and then, out of nowhere, there are messages that Outlook did not not closing properly, lock-ups when trying to install a new printer...I am sure I am not saying anything new here.

Summary

If it came to having Windows 7 as an only choice or having no PC at all - I would not have a PC.Do yourself a favor and fork over the (outrageous) price of a Mac before going with WIN/PC. Once you recover financially life gets infinitely better!

Sound like a hardware propblem. Mine was doing the same thing. Problem was the hard drive was failing. Could also be you are not meeting the minimum specs to run it. Windows 7 needs at least a 2ghz processor and 4gb of ram

I've been using win7 since it came out and it hasn't had any of those problems. If you took the few minutes it takes to disable the background sounds they wouldn't be a problem. Please don't write a review on an OS you obviously know nothing about. Also as a side note windows was set up for a more professional interface as opposed to macs witch is more of an entertainment interface.

Looks stunning on running on my laptopHad no problems at all since I've been running itRecently upgraded from Vista, (clean install) as I did something stupid and it made the OS explode, windows 7 was a really nice change, and I'm actually glad I upgraded now.

Cons

None what so ever.

Summary

Not a huge change from Vista. I had no problems with vista before I upgraded, but Windows 7 really is a nice change. It's a lot faster as an OS and I was rather glad to get rid of the crapware on my old OS when I did this clean install.

Big improvement over Vista if you don't mind spending the $400+ for the Professional/Enterprise version.

Cons

No good OEM OS. If you think the OEM Home edition will give you the experience you get in Pro or Enterprise, you're wrong. Low end versions are worse than Vista and laggy.

Summary

Microsoft needs to get used to the fact nobody wants to pay $400 for a PC and then another $400 for the OS anymore...just to spend more money on the actual software. The business model needs to change or they need to go away.

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